Alabama banned it. The Republican National Committee (RNC) officially opposes it. Even a group of Democrats has now joined the fight. And the movement to stop it is growing stronger every single day. Twenty years after the United Nations birthed the global “sustainable development” scheme known as Agenda 21, its tentacles have stretched across America into every level of government. But the battle to stop it is in full swing.

While the planetary plot was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, the executive branch has played a crucial role in its success thus far, using grants and mandates to foist it on the American people. Bush, Clinton, and Obama all worked on implementing it. But now, activists from across the political spectrum — Tea Party groups, Occupy Wall Street types, Republicans, liberals, and moderates — are turning up the heat. Scientists are defecting in record numbers, too.

Of course, opposition has existed all along, though it was largely ignored by the establishment press and the political class. In the United States in recent years, however, outrage over the controversial global plan has become overwhelming — impossible to conceal any longer. So in response to the growing nationwide outcry, cities, counties, political parties, and states have all started to take action to defend citizens and their rights. It is paying off; more victories are being announced almost weekly.

“Think globally, act locally”

“Think globally, act locally” has been the marching slogan of the environmental Left for many years, as its partisans have worked to fasten, incrementally, more and more of Agenda 21’s global mandates on local communities. In the past few years, opponents of Agenda 21 have gone to the same playbook.

Local governments, for example, are withdrawing en masse from the UN’s chief mechanism for foisting the plan on communities: ICLEI-Local Governments for Local Environmental Initiatives — formerly known as the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives. Dozens of cities and counties have already withdrawn from ICLEI in recent years. In fact, membership in the international organization has declined from over 600 local governments in America in 2009 to well under 550 today. And a new wave of withdrawals is expected in 2012 as public outrage over the schemes and the dangers they represent to freedom continues to build.

“This organization is a threat to our individual rights and our local government’s sovereignty in decision-making,” noted College Station, Texas, City Councilman Jess Fields when announcing that the local government was withdrawing from ICLEI, citing UN documents to highlight the danger. “It is an insidious, extreme institution that does not represent our citizens, and for our taxpayers to continue to fund it would be ridiculous.”

“We do not need international organizations leading the way for us in how we develop our planning and development tools and regulations,” Fields added. “It is better for policies to reflect the actual needs of our community than some amorphous concept of greenness or sustainability, promoted by an overarching international body.”

Shortly after College Station’s withdrawal, Irving, Texas, also dropped its membership. “Agenda 21 is becoming a hot issue in Texas because of its connection to the United Nations,” noted activist Frank Koch, founder of the grass-roots group Stop Agenda 21 in Texas working to expose and fight the UN scheme in the Lone Star State. “I applaud Irving, Texas, for having the wisdom to join the growing number of cities rejecting this insidious program.”

Ocean County, New Jersey, rejected the scheme recently as well. “According to Agenda 21 policy, social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment which would be accomplished by socialist/communist redistribution of wealth,” county lawmakers said in a resolution slamming ICLEI and the UN.

Statement by States

State officials all across the country, meanwhile, are fighting back as well. Alabama recently became the first state to formally ban Agenda 21 within its territory, when Governor Robert Bentley (pictured above) signed into law strongly worded legislation prohibiting any involvement in the scheme by state agencies or local governments. The legislation was passed unanimously in both the Alabama House and Senate.

“The State of Alabama and all political subdivisions may not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process, as may be required by policy recommendations originating in, or traceable to ‘Agenda 21,’” the law states.

The people of Alabama, acting through their elected representatives — not UN bureaucrats — have the authority to develop the state’s environmental and development policies, the official synopsis of the law explains. Therefore, infringements on the property rights of citizens linked to “any other international law or ancillary plan of action that contravenes the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the State of Alabama” are also prohibited under the new measure.

As the law points out, the UN has enlisted a broad array of non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations in its effort to foist Agenda 21 on the world, most notably the Germany-based ICLEI. But the new measure takes direct aim at that problem, too: “The State of Alabama and all political subdivisions may not enter into any agreement, expend any sum of money, or receive funds contracting services, or giving financial aid to or from” any such entities, as defined in Agenda 21 documents.

Responding to an article about the new law, popular U.K. Telegraph columnist James Delingpole said Alabama had just “helped save the world” with its victory against Agenda 21. Citing Delingpole’s piece, Investor’s Business Dailysaid in an editorial: “Alabama has just told the U.N. and the EPA what they need to be told — don’t tread on us.” The alternative media, of course, praised the landmark achievement as well.

Before Alabama adopted its tough law, lawmakers in Arizona almost succeeded in adopting a similar measure. The popular bill would have prohibited all state agencies and political subdivisions from implementing or supporting any portion of the UN’s so-called “sustainable development” scheme. After being approved by the state Senate, it cleared several initial hurdles in Arizona’s House of Representatives. The legislative session, however, ended before the measure obtained final approval.

Tennessee recently adopted a strongly worded resolution slamming the UN scheme as “insidious” and “socialist.” “This United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms all as destructive to the environment,” the resolution explains. “We hereby endorse rejection of its radical policies and rejection of any grant monies attached to it.”

Kansas, New Hampshire, Arkansas, Louisiana, and numerous other state legislatures are also working on similar anti-Agenda 21 measures.

Going Forward

The RNC adopted a strongly worded resolution slamming Agenda 21. “The United Nations Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control,” it states, noting that the scheme would — by its own admission in official documents — use “socialist” and “communist” redistribution of wealth to advance the UN’s vision of so-called “social justice.”

“The Republican National Committee recognizes the destructive and insidious nature of United Nations Agenda 21 and hereby exposes to the public and public policy makers the dangerous intent of the plan,” it added.

Numerous state parties followed suit. The Texas GOP, for example, passed a resolution denouncing Agenda 21 as a serious threat to the U.S. Constitution, the individual rights of Americans, and the institution of private property.

On June 2, North Carolina’s GOP also adopted a resolution.

A broad array of activists and organizations ranging from Democrats Against UN Agenda 21 to The John Birch Society, Americans for Prosperity, Tom DeWeese’s American Policy Center, and numerous other conservative and libertarian groups has put the UN scheme on the map. And candidates for office all across the land, from city and county government to state legislatures, to governor (North Carolina) to the U.S. Senate (Texas), have made opposition to Agenda 21 a focal point of their campaigns.

Former Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Pat McCrory, who is now the Republican candidate for governor of the Tar Heel State, says he is “proud to support” the NCGOP’s resolution against Agenda 21.

“Under the guise of world sustainability the plan establishes a regime of rules that attempt[s] to bypass Congress and the American people, handing … power over vast areas of the US economy to unelected UN bureaucrats,” said insurgent Tea Party Republican Ted Cruz, a leading contender in Texas’ U.S. Senate race. “Agenda 21 is wrong, and it must be stopped.”

When asked by The New American at Rio+20 about the growing U.S. opposition and Alabama’s latest prohibition in particular, ICLEI President David Cadman seemed perplexed. “I haven’t seen that about Alabama, and I’m quite surprised about that,” he said, adding that he did not think states could pass such laws.

On the growing backlash against “sustainability” more generally, Cadman also sounded somewhat confused. “I’ve got to confess I don’t really understand the Tea Party.... We find that [opposition] nowhere else but in America,” he said. “I think, quite frankly, a lot of that is because America is not well served by its media…. There are times when I’ll turn on Fox News, and I’ll say, ‘This wouldn’t be allowed in Canada,’” Cadman added, pointing to Canadian laws that force media outlets to give “both sides of the story.”

In reality, the establishment press and an assortment of attack dogs including UN-funded propaganda organs and the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center are fighting back hard against the opposition. But each time Agenda 21 critics are attacked, a tsunami of activists exposing the UN scheme flood the article’s comment section with links to the global body’s documents. And, perhaps more importantly, awareness of the global plan spreads even further — with the growing resistance that entails.

— Photo of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley: AP Images

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